화학공학소재연구정보센터
홈 로그인 로그아웃 연락처 사이트맵
Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, Vol.33, No.6, 1908-1916, June, 2016
DOI10.1007/s11814-016-0018-5  Export Citation
Deep desulfurization of fuel gas by adsorption on Cu-impregnated activated carbons in practical conditions
Hoang Phuoc Ho, Palraj Kasinathan, Jaesung Kim1, Doohwan Lee1, †, and Hee Chul Woo†
  • Department of Chemical Engineering, Pukyong National University, San 100 Yongdang-dong, Nam-gu, Busan 48547, Korea
  • 1Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Seoul, 13 Siripdae-gil, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02504, Korea
E-mail:,
Deep desulfurization properties and characteristics of activated carbon (AC) modified by impregnation of CuCl2 were studied using simulated hydrocarbon fuels containing dimethyl sulfide (DMS), tert-butylmercaptan (TBM), and tetrahydrothiophene (THT), the typical organosulfur compounds representing sulfides, thiols, and thiophenes that exist in fuel gases. The pristine AC had limited adsorptive desulfurization performance for a ternary DMS-THT-TBM mixture feed with an early breakthrough of DMS and TBM due to its preferential adsorption of THT. The adsorption of these organosulfur species on the AC surface was intrinsically weak and competing, as indicated by their low desorption activation energies (37-39 kJ mol.1). However, relatively stronger adsorption of THT than the others led to the AC surface gradually being covered by THT through replacement of the initially adsorbed TBM and DMS. The impregnation of CuCl2 on the AC (3.4 atomic % Cu) additionally formed strong and selective adsorption sites for TBM (activation energy=58.6 kJ mol.1) on the AC surface, which gave rise to about three-fold increase in the total breakthrough adsorption capacity for these sulfur species. The structure and physicochemical properties of the adsorbents were characterized by N2 adsorption, x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and surface pH measurement. The results suggested that the modulation of adsorption selectivity of the AC surface by CuCl2 impregnation had significant effects on the overall deep desulfurization performance for fuel gases containing multiple organosulfur species in practical conditions.
Keywords:Adsorptive Desulfurization;Activated Carbon;Copper;Fuel Cell;Fuel Processing
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